Com Truise, Poolside, and Bonde do Rolê
King Pubert says, "BOO!"
EVE, Miami
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The decentralization of Halloween (that is, when the All Hallow's Eve actually falls on a weeknight and nobody knows when to party) makes an already surreal holiday that much weirder.
Instead of one night of spooky shit, oversexed belligerence, and outlandish pop-culture references, the holiday becomes a cartoonishly twisted, week-long affair.
See also:
-Poolside on EDM, the Los Angeles Scene, Pacific Standard Time, and Fine Wine
-Miami's Halloween 2012 Music and Party Guide
-Ten Best Halloween Parties in Miami
For this past weekend's Mission to Mars party at EVE (hosted by perpetually hustling post-disco impresarios, Nightdrive, as well as Poplife), most people were dressed straight-up Saturday Night Normal. And we're not sure we saw a single person wearing a costume pertaining to the evening's sci-fi theme.
But who gives a fancy fuck about what people are wearing when the tunes are top quality.
We arrived just as opening act Bonde do Rolê took the stage like Samba-obsessed aerobics instructors. And even though the crowd was still warming up, this trio of Brazilian MCs performed like they were on a parade float in the middle of Rio De Janeiro during the peak of carnival.
Their music was supplied completely via laptop, but Bonde do Rolê compensated with captivating physicality on-par with those freaks in Die Antwoord. But that's really where the comparisons end, as the South American electro troupe is the DayGlo antidote to the South African duo's dark, post-colonial abstractions. We heard shades of Le Tigre, reggaeton and funk carioca, traditional Brazilian music, and Miami's own Avenue D.
Los Angeles's Poolside needs to change its damn name. We were expecting something on the beach-y spectrum that extends from Vampire Weekend to Washed Out (and runs perpendicular to Wavves). But we were treated to something much more unique.
This quartet of musician's musicians quite successfully ooze sensual, shimmering, new dance music. But Poolside have so expertly extracted the most decadent qualities of live band electro à la LCD Soundsystem, Fleetwood Mac-style yacht rock, and the serious chops of a fucking band, that it would appear they are forging something new entirely.
Everyone on the stage managed more than one instrument. And while the songs pulsed with the romantic throb of pop music, the chops at hand could not be ignored.
Headliners Com Truise also augmented digital sounds with some actual drum kit percussion. And we appreciated main dude Seth Haley's komische-friendly programming, which at its most out-there recalled Oneohtrixpointnever. But we couldn't help feel like they'd been upstaged, so slightly, by Poolside. The rest of the audience, however, didn't seem to think so as they vigorously boogied from the top of the set to its bottom.
Happy Halloween, hipsters!
Critic's Notebook
The Crowd: Surprisingly under-Halloween'd norms, college kids, nightlife stylists, not a single person dressed in space-themed attire.
From the Crowd: A Poolside superfan kept screaming, "She loves you!" at the dude in the band wearing a scarf, while pointing to her friend.
From the Stage: "This is your last chance to slow-dance," as stated by the bassist of Poolside before breaking into the final slow jam of the set.
Slutty Costumes: Angels, devils, Darth Vader, milk maid, vampire (spooky mod?), undead everything, sluts.
Personal Bias: We're not Jewish, but we still prefer Purim to All Hallow's.
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